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Phones · Google Pixel

Google Pixel 7 Pro

23owners with an opinion
50%of verdicts positive
8/9positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for reliability and software; criticized for performance and battery.

What owners wrote

Doesn’t like itOwned 0.5 years
> They are also excellent phones. I'm glad you had a good experience with it, but I had the Pixel 7 Pro and it was the single worst phone I have ever used. Utterly dogshit, to a point where I swore a blood oath to never purchase another Pixel ever again. I've heard that the later Pixels are better but I guess I'll never know. It's possible that I had a defective unit, but regardless of the reason it was a laggy mess, that got terrible battery life, and sometimes simply wouldn't finish turning on (it would just stay on a black screen indefinitely). I bought it in July of 2023 and I ended up giving it to a family member and buying a refurb iPhone 13 Pro Max, which I still have and it has been considerably better. It's not like I'm this huge Apple fanboy (feel free to look at my history complaining about my time working there), but if the Pixel 7 was 2023's flagship Android phone, then I have very little interest in using Android anymore.
Doesn’t like it
I got a Pixel 7 Pro for work, and it's so laggy. Idk what a 120hz display is for when stock apps like Google Maps are running at like 30fps. I thought maybe some corp security stuff was slowing it down, but I showed it to people at work who have only ever used Android, and they thought it was normal. Outdated comparison now that Liquid Glass is lagging my phone.
Doesn’t like it
That's still the default state of Google Hardware. Just look at their out-of-warranty Pixel Watch repairs. And if you're not in North America (or EU), chances are very high that any repair to Pixels is going to be either not possible or will cost you dearly. I personally had a terrible experience of this with Pixel 7 Pro that was in warranty and had a water-related damage, since then, I've stayed away from any device made by Google.
Doesn’t like it
Assuming that this Graphene partnership ends up working out, this is probably what I will end up doing once my current iPhone dies. I like my iPhone 13 Pro Max, it's a good phone and I don't really have a desire to get rid of it, but eventually it will break, or get stolen, or in some other way become unusable, and as such it will need to be replaced. I really hated my Pixel 7 Pro, but I think that was bad hardware and not Android's fault, and since buying my iPhone 13 I have bought my Thinkpad and have been unbelievably impressed with Lenovo hardware (especially since the last Android phone that I bought that I actually liked was my Moto X3). It would be great if Graphene ends up getting support from at least one first party, because at that point I think there's at least a chance it won't screw with banking apps and the like.
Likes it
So Samsung has joined Apple!! I used Samsung for decades but since buying a Pixel 7 PRO to install GrapheneOS on it, I am never using another non-GrapheneOS phone again period. I can do everything, have full control over my phone, receive security updates that other phones will take half year to receive to name a few. The only thing that doesn't work on GOS is Google Wallet, but since I have gone De-Google with Proton Mail and what not, I couldn't care less. Important apps like banking and gov apps do work without problems. And to avoid dependency on Google hardware, GrapheneOS is releasing their own EOM phone most likely by the end of 2027.
Recommends it
Very affordable to do. I bought a cheap refurbished Pixel 7 Pro off eBay for $250 and installed GrapheneOS on it. Threw an eSim $20/m plan on it and use it as my phone when I leave the house and go IRL. If I ever lose it or it gets taken while traveling, who cares, its secure af. I just cancel my eSim and buy another phone to install GrapheneOS on all while my main phone Pixel 10 Pro is still safe and at home.
Doesn’t like it
I'm actually considering buying myself an iPhone for the first time. I have basically two priorities when buying an phone: 1. Freedom. I should be able to build and run apps on it without the platform holder having a barrier on it. 2. Privacy. The phone shouldn't be an object to track me for better ad sales or any other purpose. Of course, priority 1 has until recently always led to Android while priority 2 has always led to Apple. But with the upcoming announced changes where google is going to require registration and signing for even third party sideloaded apps, while at the same time the EU is forcing Apple to open up and allow sideloading, it seems pretty clear that in the near future both Apple and Google's policies regarding point 1 are going to converge. On a position less free than Android has hitherto been, and less free than I would like, but unfortunately they are the two options on the market. So with priority 1 no longer a differentiating factor, it comes down to priority 2. I've used both Android and iOS over the years, as while my personal phones have always been Android, my employer provided phones have always been iOS. I think I do prefer the Android user experience and have used enough of both that that's not just a factor of which I'm accustomed to, but it's also not the huge difference it once was for a lot of apps. Right now I'm using a Pixel 7 Pro and I might weigh sitting it out another year, but my USB-C port is failing and I'm also watching the pixel…
Neutral
Coming from a Pixel 7 Pro the single biggest upgrade is the fingerprint sensor. Dramatic improvement. I turned it off before; it actually works now. Magnetic charging is nice. The first party charger stand is just OK. I find it slightly less comfortable to hold because of the more squared sides, though I appreciate the flat front glass and the fact that it sits on tables without wobbling.
Likes it
>The performance is just unacceptable, it's already 50%+ slower than a snapdragon 8 elite flagship released in the same year. This is the one thing I don't understand. How many people actually need the top end SoCs that other flagships come with. Phones have been more than fast enough for a long time now. Other than playing some games with tough visuals mid range SoCs are still more than powerful enough. Complaints about battery life and the modems are fair (though I never had complaints about my Pixel 7 Pro battery life until it failed). I also found that the photos from my Pixel were by far the best I'd ever seen from a phone. Every phone I had prior was only used for quick snapshots, if I was expecting to want to take something decent I would make sure to pack my mirrorless, with the Pixel I could actually trust it to take an acceptable photo.
Doesn’t like it
> When I put a Pixel on a table, it sits there stable My experience with the Pixel 7 Pro is due to the very pronounced camera bump and the rounded edges, the phone would slide off tables with problematic frequency, to the point that mine just lives in its bike mount case full time now.
Likes it
Those tools/features are more ways to collect data easily. I have a Pixel 7 Pro running GrapheneOS , I am never going back to an AndroidOS, period. The level of privacy and control GOS provides is like no other, and the security update is always ahead of Google. GOS in fact has found and reported vulnerabilities which we get released to our phone faster than Google. I am too biased to say anything, I went De-Google years ago, I am using web version instead of apps, if only people knew how much crappy is running in their phone. However, I still access YouTube coz TV sucks and there is no better service, and YouTube Music coz any other service sucks with poor content. Mobiles releases from some time now have been more of the same, it is even worse on Apple side lmao, but now things are getting worse with AI everywhere. AI IMHO means more data being collected, more features and services that are cloud based instead of locally, meaning, soon or later since everything is running on the cloud, you must pay a subscription. Remember, when it comes to big tech nothing is free, you either pay for a subscription or your personal data is the payment.
Doesn’t like it
Pixel 7 pro phones latest camera was the biggest disappointment for me. I usually have been happy with pixels but it has trouble focusing on infinity, and the image stabilization on the 5x zoom lens is so jumpy it's worse than nothing at all. I thought about trying to get it warrantied or something but was already sick of spending hours at the Verizon store trying to get my trade-in credit. And to get the full advertised resolution (which you have to enable in the photo toggles) you have to tolerate a delayed shutter button and a "long exposure" for it to do the computational photography or something. So it's useless to expect full resolution with kids or action.
Doesn’t like it
The Pixel 7 Pro was the worst phone I've ever owned. The battery was terrible, the camera was terrible, sometimes it just wouldn't boot up, everything about it was awful. I swore an oath that I wouldn't buy a Pixel phone ever again. I've heard that the Pixel 8 was better, but I'll never know.
Likes it
I went another route. I bought a second phone. I have my regular main phone that I use M-F for work and personal. then I bought a second phone and installed GrapheneOS on it. I use this phone when I go out or doing anything on the weekends. I only have a few contacts on it and only 2 apps that I use that are my banking app and Signal. Keeps all the distractions away from me. I bought a used unlocked Pixel 7 Pro off eBay for $250 so it wasnt the cheapest route but sure makes it really easy.
Likes it
This. I've been using a refurbished Pixel 7 Pro with GrapheneOS for some months and couldn't be more happy, although I still prefer to do everything on the PC. I'm too used to the big screen and real keyboard; even this 12" Thinkpad is on a different planet compared to any cellphone wrt usability. Pixels are expensive however, and so many cheap old tablets could be converted to run native Linux and be reused for a lot of tasks, from IoT/home controllers to instrumentation panels, but keeping them tight closed only makes sure they're thrown away once the OS is too old to be upgraded or run new apps.
Doesn’t like it
I have a Pixel 7 Pro, and my Bluetooth has been fine. No issues there, ever, but I do have complaints about features suddenly not working and it mostly revolves around Google Assistant. It is utterly inconsistent with what it does, and it is maddening. It randomly wants me to unlock the device to play music, but I'm using voice controls because I'm driving. It has my car's bluetooth device set as "trusted" so it shouldn't even require it to unlock to continue, and it's not like asking it to play something on Spotify would reveal any information about myself. Additionally, sometimes it just leaves the screen on in the off chance that it _does_ start to play music, and I feel my pocket getting warm but there's nothing that I can do because I'm driving and I don't want to mess with my phone. If I knew that it was going to leave the screen on I would just queue up music before I leave, but it doesn't always do it and it drives me nuts. I don't think that my next phone will be a Pixel.
Doesn’t like it
I cannot imagine that it could get much worse. I don't have an Android phone anymore, and to be potentially fair to Proton, my last Android phone was an utter piece of shit (Pixel 7 Pro). I know people who had the Pixel 7 Pro and they didn't seem to hate it, so it's possible that it had some hardware issues, but it certainly didn't seem like hardware issues. I hated that thing so much that it completely turned me off of Android for the foreseeable future, since this was not a cheap phone, and it was Google's flagship phone: if they couldn't get a good experience on the flagship product, I didn't see why the experience would be much better on anything else. Anyway, it's possible that the Proton app didn't suck as generally on Android as it did for me, it could have been the phone's fault, but it did leave a very bad taste in my mouth. As stated, the iOS version of the Proton app is totally fine, I haven't had any issues with it other than I don't really like the theme, but that's hardly worth complaining about.
Doesn’t like it
Already had my fill of Pixel 7 Pro problems. The screen failed to register any touches on it, twice. Once within warranty, once outside it. Best I could do is file a claim with my credit card company for a measly $300. For a $1200 phone. Had a bizarrely similar experience with the Pixel Watch. The screen just failed to respond to touch. Wasted an hour figuring out how to get into fast boot mode. After a factory reset, it started working, but it doesn't get much more than 12-16 hours of battery time before needing a charge. After losing a lot of money, time, and patience, I'm done with Google anything. Their hardware is garbage and they seem to have failed to address these issues with newer Pixel releases. Not sure what the point is of having 7 years of updates when the phone's hardware will barely last one of those years. And good luck with support. Switched to a Samsung A54, and although it is slower and laggier in some aspects, the hardware is solid and I've been impressed at how clean OneUI is. Tip: When your Pixel screen fails to respond to touch, you can at least plug in a USB mouse and recover what you can before tossing it into the dead gadget drawer.
Doesn’t like it
This actually kind of happened to me. My iPhone 12 Pro was stolen out of my hands last year in July. I had an Apple watch, but decided to replace the iPhone with a Pixel 7 Pro [1] since it was a bit cheaper than replacing the iPhone and I didn't have a job, and as a result my watch didn't work. Initially I was happy enough to use a dumb analog watch, but shortly after this happened, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and wanted something that would track sleep. I ended up getting a Garmin Instinct (per a recommendation on HN actually). I gotta admit that it would have been pretty nice to not have been forced to buy a new smartwatch, and just use the one I already had. I love the Garmin Instinct, more than I liked the Apple Watch [2], it's a very good, well-made product, and I'm happy that it appears to work fine on iOS and Android, but I really didn't need another watch. If there hadn't been an artificial limitation forcing me to get another watch, I would probably still be using the Apple Watch. [1] I don't have that phone anymore because the Pixel 7 Pro is a horrible product that Google should be ashamed of themselves over. [2] In no small part because the battery is like 16 days instead of the 1.5 days I was getting with the Apple Watch.